City of DeKalb is spending $98,000 on a study of the feasibility of bringing commuter rail service to our city. But the information is already available. DeKalb County examined feasibility at the end of 2015. Led by then-county board chair Mark Pietrowski, an informal meeting of the Metra Rail Exploratory Committee included representatives from DeKalb,…
Category: Energy & Environment
Water reservations in DeKalb
Third in a series. First one is here. Second is here. Water conflicts continue to develop in the Joliet area. A small but vocal group of protesters gathered on the steps of Joliet city hall on Monday night to rail against Mayor Robert O’Dekirk’s controversial plan to solve a looming water crisis by tripling rates…
DeKalb taps into water trends
First of a series. The Better Government Association recently published an article about Joliet’s ambitious and controversial mayor, who plans to buy Lake Michigan water from Chicago. [Water scarcity] tensions have arrived in northeastern Illinois, which, despite its proximity to the world’s fourth-largest source of fresh water, faces a coming water crisis. Among the first…
A look back: DeKalb and its radium water
25 years ago, residents of DeKalb organized to pressure the city to reduce the amount of radium in our drinking water. The city, which already had obtained a variance that allowed it to exceed EPA limits for radium, required a second variance in 1996 to obtain permits to extend water mains for new construction. This…
Counties Generating Revenue from Housing Prisoners
Boone County Watchdog tipped me off about a new revenue source for the blog’s home county: transporting and housing federal prisoners. The full story comes from the Register Star: BELVIDERE — A negotiating firm plans to generate tens of thousands of dollars in new revenue for the Boone County jail without changing day-to-day operations. The…
November 25 Council Agenda
The city has put up another meeting agenda for tomorrow that’s a revision of the original, so all you early birds will have to read the new one. However, keep the old one handy because they didn’t include the rest of the packet with the revision. Highlights: Item 1: Another hit to the Public Safety…
Municipal Electrical Aggregation & You
An organization I belong to has hundreds of members. During a recent general membership meeting, one of them stood up and pitched the idea that the group should be selling his brand of electricity to the rest of us as a fundraiser. The board of directors asked him to confirm whether his is a multi-level…
Contributions to Local State Reps from Energy & Utility Companies
There’s been a lot of talk about how ComEd and Ameren are spreading a lot of cash among state legislative leaders in hopes of an override of the governor’s veto of the Smart Grid legislation. Here’s a look at 2011 contributions from energy and utility companies to our legislators, State Rep. Bob Pritchard and State…
Chicken Petition Gets Mixed Reception at Farmers’ Market
The Holly House Chicken Lady sat all afternoon at the DeKalb Farmers’ Market yesterday. See what happened to her there.
The Holly House
Citybarbs is pleased to add to our blogroll another local voice, The Holly House, a blog devoted to “green living on a blue collar budget.” The blog owner, a 4th Warder like me, has begun developing a proposal for amending DeKalb’s municipal code to allow residents to raise a few hens for eggs, as well…